“The artist’s task is to save the soul of mankind; … if the artists cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found.” - Terrence McKenna

This week for Cancelled/Not Cancelled, AIME, alongside Grounded Festival, invited Damon Gameau (director of the film 2040) onto the program to deliver a keynote speech. He gives us a strong message on hope - that we need to change how we talk about the future, in order to motivate people with hope.

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.” - Raymond Williams

For Damon, the world is framing problems the wrong way, by inducing fear rather than inspiring hope, and by spreading negativity rather than productivity.

“We have to excite people and move them forward with excitement rather than bang them over the head with how bad things are… Hope is often not found in the mainstream news and media. We are more inclined to watch or read or share a story if it has an element of fear to it.”

In the spirit of hope, Damon showed us the future. It features driverless cars, solar powered microgrids, kelp forests and cities converted into farms. By removing the emphasis on stories of doom and gloom, and instead focusing our attention on the worldly solutions, we are able to create hope and inspire progress and understanding.

“We all have a responsibility these days, we all are publishers in a way. Really think about the things that you are sharing... are you putting out stories of hope and stories of solutions that show people what can be done.”

Last week, UNESCO told us that 1.37 billion children will have their education disrupted by COVID-19, and to Damon, that presents an opportunity to reset our minds, to reconsider the ways things have always been done, and to emerge from this pandemic like a butterfly from a cocoon, into a beautiful new world - and now, we just have to fly. To all of those kids stuck at home he says;

“Make sure you dream and use your imagination, sit down one day and get out a piece of paper and draw the world you want to live in. What would you like to see? Because the actions we take today will build the future.”